Posts Tagged ‘IDF Spokesperson’

Rockets launched at Jerusalem on Sunday, Aug. 24, were “fired from a compound of three schools in Shejaiya” a neighborhood in Gaza, confirmed the IDF Spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner.

In response to the terrorists’ launch, the Israel Defense Force targeted the site and achieved a successful hit. The incoming rockets towards Jerusalem were intercepted by Israel’s missile defense system.

It appears the IDF has finally hit upon an effective way of communicating so that it is not always in a defensive role of after-the-fact explaining why it struck a particular target in an area in which civilians either reside or are sheltered, as has happened so many times during this and other conflicts. To wit: they immediately explain the basis for a particular site being targeted.

Now, when Said Arikat of Al Quds newspaper demands the State Department Spokesperson condemn Israel for targeting schools at tomorrow’s State Department press briefing, at least the information is already available as to why that site was struck. It may not deter Arikat or other pathological denouncers of Israel, but at least those willing to seek the facts will have them readily available.

HIGH VOLUME SUNDAY

More than 140 rockets or mortars were fired on Israel from Gaza on Sunday. The ones reaching near Jerusalem were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defense missile system, near the city’s northern suburbs of abu Ghosh and Beit Shemesh.

One rocket fired from Gaza on Sunday landed in central Tel Aviv. No injuries or damage was reported.

One location at which Gazan rockets did result in injuries and damage was at the Erez Crossing between Israel and Gaza. Three people were injured from that mortar, two seriously. The assault resulted in the Crossing being closed. Keep that in mind when you hear about the audacity of Israel in preventing the free flow of goods into Gaza.

The massive explosion in Gaza early Monday morning which resulted in the death of seven Hamas terrorists was caused both by the IDF and Hamas.

When the IDF targeted and hit one of the smuggling tunnels built by Hamas which connects underground to Israel, it caught terrorists who were in the tunnel carrying and working with explosives which they had intended to use to murder Israeli civilians. Instead, the explosives detonated, causing the deaths and additional damage to the structure of the tunnel.

Because those explosives were destroyed, they could not be used to wreak terror and potential harm to Israeli citizens.

“Terror tunnels such as this one demonstrate Hamas’ constant attempts to violate Israel’s sovereignty and carry out complex attacks,” said IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner. “We are committed to fulfil our duty with preemptive precision and extensive intelligence in order to safeguard Israelis under threat. Gaza terrorists will not be free to scheme, plot and conspire. They will face the repercussions of their loathsome intentions.”

The rocket attacks which began escalating since the time when Palestinian Arabs kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers, terrorists in Gaza have launched more than 240 rockets at Israel.

The terrorists in Gaza have been shooting rockets at Israel for weeks, and in just the past twenty four hours alone twenty five rockets were launched from the Strip.

Tzeva Adom (Code Red), the Israeli warning system of incoming rockets, has been sounding around the clock and Israelis, young and old, are constantly running to bomb shelters.

But in an alarming turn, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, the Spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, announced that a mortar landed in the Northern Galilee, in Israel, very late Sunday night. The IDF was responding to suspicious positions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s social media chief was reportedly suspended for making inappropriate statements on his personal Facebook page.

Daniel Seaman, the prime minister’s director for interactive media, suggested that Palestinians who commemorate the Nakba, an Arabic word referring to the “catastrophe” that is Israel’s victory in the 1948 war, may want to reflect on their “stupidity.” Seaman also wrote he was “sick” of commemorations for the victims of the nuclear bombs dropped in Japan during World War II because “you reap what you sow.”

Israeli media quoted unnamed officials Thursday as saying that Seaman was suspended from his post. A statement from the government reported in the Jerusalem Post said only that Seaman was asked to “refrain from making such statements.”

Enlisted soldiers and reservists from across the political spectrum expose the IDF failure in Judea and Samaria stone throwing and firebombing incidents: silence, ignoring reality, conflicting commands, entrenchment and escape.

“What you feel at the frontline is that they’re telling you, really, ‘Be a sponge, be a potted plant, just don’t make us look bad, don’t start fires.’ I can tell you that what happened to our company at this frontline is that people have undergone change. People have been educated into paralysis,” says Master Sergeant Y., 31′ who recently completed his reserves stint in an infantry battalion in Hebron.

The above testimony of a soldiers who has served at the Judea and Samaria front is not unique. It is part of several dozen testimonies accumulated in recent weeks by researchers for Makor Rishon from reserves soldiers and enlisted men, and they all tell a very similar story:

In hundreds of events of Arab provocation which frequently included stone and firebomb throwing at IDF soldiers, the IDF reaction has been silence, ignoring the provocations, entrenchment and escape.

The soldiers who were interviewed belong to the full political and cultural span: religious and secular, left and right wing.

When asked to describe their experiences at the frontline, they all used very similar expressions: “shame,” “humiliation,” “castration,” and “impotence.”

They spoke freely of situations where they ran away or hid from Arabs. “We went out to do a block and check between two villages at one in the morning,” M., 28, a company commander who did his reserve duty near Ramallah, recalled. “After 15 minutes in the field, we strated hearing whistles from the nearby village. We realized they were going to violate the public order. We were eight altogether, I was the chief. I knew it would take time to receive backup if we asked for it. I said, ‘It’s jot for us,” and we pulled out. We simply vanished. We ran.

“I came out of it nervous. I felt defeated. My soldiers told me, there we go again, fleeing the scene. IDF defeatism. I felt we had been brought out there as pawns in a game of chess, just to show up, not to act.”

Many soldiers argue that they aren’t being permitted to take care of violations of the public order, as well as of rock and firebomb throwing, while the number of these events keeps going up.

“You stand there like a dummy with nothing to do,” L., 25, a recently discharged Armor officer who served in Judea and Samaria related. “The policy is ‘Restraint,’ they call it ‘Containment,’ all kind of laundered words and nonsense. We are completely neutralized. We are soldiers with weapons, five magazines each, but our hands are cuffed behind our backs. We’re not permitted to defend ourselves at the most elementary level. How is it even conceivable that someone would raise his hand on an IDF soldiers and would get to remain standing, even smiling? But that’s the atmosphere right now.”

In recent weeks, enlisted and reservist IDF soldiers started a Facebook group called “Let the IDF Win,” whose goal is to educate the public and bring about a substantial change in the rules of engagement.

Senior IDF officers insist there’s nothing wrong with the rules of engagement, only in their application. Many agree that there is a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding, even defeatism, born by a permanent disconnect between the top brass and the fighting men and women on the ground. The most damaging component here is the threat of an investigation, should soldier react forcefully to Arab provocation.

“The spirit has changed,” L. explains. “There’s no longer an eagerness for action, for confrontation. Our feeling, as middle rank officers, is that even when action is called for, you’re better off not acting. If you do something, it’ll only end up with investigations and trouble.”

L. described a situation where an Arab “mooned” him right in front of his face. He says he felt humiliated, but when his soldiers urged him to shoot the Arab with a rubber bullet, preferably right in the “moon,” he told them to calm down.

“Because when the investigators ask me why I shot him, and I said it was because I felt humiliated, that’s not a good enough answer,” he explains.